Day 5 of 365

¹Then Job answered,

²"Oh that my anguish were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances!

³For now it would be heavier than the sand of the seas, therefore have my words been rash.

⁴For the arrows of the Almighty are within me. My spirit drinks up their poison. The terrors of God set themselves in array against me.

⁵Does the wild donkey bray when he has grass? Or does the ox low over his fodder?

⁶Can that which has no flavor be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?

⁷My soul refuses to touch them. They are as loathsome food to me.

⁸"Oh that I might have my request, that God would grant the thing that I long for,

⁹even that it would please God to crush me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!

¹⁰Be it still my consolation, yes, let me exult in pain that doesn't spare, that I have not denied the words of the Holy One.

¹¹What is my strength, that I should wait? What is my end, that I should be patient?

¹²Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh of brass?

¹³Isn't it that I have no help in me, That wisdom is driven quite from me?

¹⁴"To him who is ready to faint, kindness should be shown from his friend; even to him who forsakes the fear of the Almighty.

¹⁵My brothers have dealt deceitfully as a brook, as the channel of brooks that pass away;

¹⁶Which are black by reason of the ice, in which the snow hides itself.

¹⁷In the dry season, they vanish. When it is hot, they are consumed out of their place.

¹⁸The caravans that travel beside them turn aside. They go up into the waste, and perish.

¹⁹The caravans of Tema looked. The companies of Sheba waited for them.

²⁰They were distressed because they were confident. They came there, and were confounded.

²¹For now you are nothing. You see a terror, and are afraid.

²²Did I say, 'Give to me?' or, 'Offer a present for me from your substance?'

²³or, 'Deliver me from the adversary's hand?' or, 'Redeem me from the hand of the oppressors?'

²⁴"Teach me, and I will hold my peace. Cause me to understand wherein I have erred.

²⁵How forcible are words of uprightness! But your reproof, what does it reprove?

²⁶Do you intend to reprove words, seeing that the speeches of one who is desperate are as wind?

²⁷Yes, you would even cast lots for the fatherless, and make merchandise of your friend.

²⁸Now therefore be pleased to look at me, for surely I shall not lie to your face.

²⁹Please return. Let there be no injustice. Yes, return again. My cause is righteous.

³⁰Is there injustice on my tongue? Can't my taste discern mischievous things?

¹"Isn't a man forced to labor on earth? Aren't his days like the days of a hired hand?

²As a servant who earnestly desires the shadow, as a hireling who looks for his wages,

³so am I made to possess months of misery, wearisome nights are appointed to me.

⁴When I lie down, I say, 'When shall I arise, and the night be gone?' I toss and turn until the dawning of the day.

⁵My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh.

⁶My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope.

⁷Oh remember that my life is a breath. My eye shall no more see good.

⁸The eye of him who sees me shall see me no more. Your eyes shall be on me, but I shall not be.

⁹As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away, so he who goes down to Sheol shall come up no more.

¹⁰He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more.

¹¹"Therefore I will not keep silent. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

¹²Am I a sea, or a sea monster, that you put a guard over me?

¹³When I say, 'My bed shall comfort me. My couch shall ease my complaint;'

¹⁴then you scare me with dreams, and terrify me through visions:

¹⁵so that my soul chooses strangling, death rather than my bones.

¹⁶I loathe my life. I do not want to live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.

¹⁷What is man, that you should magnify him, that you should set your mind on him,

¹⁸that you should visit him every morning, and test him every moment?

¹⁹How long will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone until I swallow down my spittle?

²⁰If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you set me as a mark for you, so that I am a burden to myself?

²¹Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity? For now shall I lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently, but I shall not be."

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,

²"How long will you speak these things? Shall the words of your mouth be a mighty wind?

³Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert righteousness?

⁴If your children have sinned against him, He has delivered them into the hand of their disobedience.

⁵If you want to seek God diligently, make your supplication to the Almighty.

⁶If you were pure and upright, surely now he would awaken for you, and make the habitation of your righteousness prosperous.

⁷Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end would greatly increase.

⁸"Please inquire of past generations. Find out about the learning of their fathers.

⁹(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow.)

¹⁰Shall they not teach you, tell you, and utter words out of their heart?

¹¹"Can the papyrus grow up without mire? Can the rushes grow without water?

¹²While it is yet in its greenness, not cut down, it withers before any other reed.

¹³So are the paths of all who forget God. The hope of the godless man shall perish,

¹⁴Whose confidence shall break apart, Whose trust is a spider's web.

¹⁵He shall lean on his house, but it shall not stand. He shall cling to it, but it shall not endure.

¹⁶He is green before the sun. His shoots go forth over his garden.

¹⁷His roots are wrapped around the rock pile. He sees the place of stones.

¹⁸If he is destroyed from his place, then it shall deny him, saying, 'I have not seen you.'

¹⁹Behold, this is the joy of his way: out of the earth, others shall spring.

²⁰"Behold, God will not cast away a blameless man, neither will he uphold the evildoers.

²¹He will still fill your mouth with laughter, your lips with shouting.

²²Those who hate you shall be clothed with shame. The tent of the wicked shall be no more."

¹Then Job answered,

²"Truly I know that it is so, but how can man be just with God?

³If he is pleased to contend with him, he can't answer him one time in a thousand.

⁴God who is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who has hardened himself against him, and prospered?

⁵He removes the mountains, and they do not know it, when he overturns them in his anger.

⁶He shakes the earth out of its place. Its pillars tremble.

⁷He commands the sun, and it doesn't rise, and seals up the stars.

⁸He alone stretches out the heavens, and treads on the waves of the sea.

⁹He makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the chambers of the south.

¹⁰He does great things past finding out; yes, marvelous things without number.

¹¹Behold, he goes by me, and I do not see him. He passes on also, but I do not perceive him.

¹²Behold, he snatches away. Who can hinder him? Who will ask him, 'What are you doing?'

¹³"God will not withdraw his anger. The helpers of Rahab stoop under him.

¹⁴How much less shall I answer him, And choose my words to argue with him?

¹⁵Though I were righteous, yet I wouldn't answer him. I would make supplication to my judge.

¹⁶If I had called, and he had answered me, yet I wouldn't believe that he listened to my voice.

¹⁷For he breaks me with a storm, and multiplies my wounds without cause.

¹⁸He will not allow me to catch my breath, but fills me with bitterness.

¹⁹If it is a matter of strength, behold, he is mighty! If of justice, 'Who,' says he, 'will summon me?'

²⁰Though I am righteous, my own mouth shall condemn me. Though I am blameless, it shall prove me perverse.

²¹I am blameless. I do not regard myself. I despise my life.

²²"It is all the same. Therefore I say he destroys the blameless and the wicked.

²³If the scourge kills suddenly, he will mock at the trial of the innocent.

²⁴The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the faces of its judges. If not he, then who is it?

²⁵"Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away, they see no good,

²⁶They have passed away as the swift ships, as the eagle that swoops on the prey.

²⁷If I say, 'I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and cheer up;'

²⁸I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that you will not hold me innocent.

²⁹I shall be condemned. Why then do I labor in vain?

³⁰If I wash myself with snow, and cleanse my hands with lye,

³¹yet you will plunge me in the ditch. My own clothes shall abhor me.

³²For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, that we should come together in judgment.

³³There is no umpire between us, that might lay his hand on us both.

³⁴Let him take his rod away from me. Let his terror not make me afraid;

³⁵then I would speak, and not fear him, for I am not so in myself.